


When There's Nothing to Lose

by orphan_account



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, Fic Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-19 00:41:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10628574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Written for the Spring 2017 Everlark Fic Exchange- Prompt 26: “A drabble where Peeta is from the Seam and Katniss is a Merchant but he’s still the one with the crush.”With only a few days to go before he starts work in the mine, Peeta takes his chance to get to know Katniss a little better.





	

Peeta lay on his back, hidden amongst the long grass of the meadow, just enjoying the summer day. He was trying to store it up in his memory, the iridescent blue of the cloudless sky, the fresh yellow of the buttercups dotted amongst the grass. Despite being surrounded by one of the most beautiful sights district 12 had to offer he let out a deep sigh. Even he couldn’t help but feel sad at the thought that this time next week he’d be working down the mine, 12 hour long shifts, deprived of light and colour. Assuming he made it through his final reaping on Sunday of course.

He shook his head to try to clear the doom away and let his eyes follow the course of a lapwing riding the breeze. As his ears strained to hear its song he picked up another sound, female voices arriving in the meadow. Peering through the grass, he grinned broadly. See, life wasn’t so bad after all, not when it offered up the sight of Katniss Everdeen. He rolled over onto his stomach to watch what was going on.

Katniss was accompanied by her younger sister, Prim, and her best friend Madge. Each of them carried a large archery bow and a quiver of arrows slung over their shoulder. Madge and Katniss were also carrying a target between them.

“This is really going to teach me poise and grace?” Katniss asked sounding doubtful.  
“Probably not,” Madge laughed back, “but it’s got to be more fun than spending another hour walking up and down with books on our heads.”

They set the target up near the fence at the edge of the meadow, where it met the forbidden woods.  


“You go first Madge; show us how it’s supposed to be done.”

Madge showed her friends how she’d been taught to stand with her legs wide, back straight, concentrating on the bullseye. She pulled back the drawstring until it met her lips and let the arrow fly.  
It hit the edge of the target, within the second circle, making Madge dance with delight.

Prim struggled with the bow. It took more strength than she had to pull the arrow back and hold it steady. It flew up into the air before the string was taut and landed short of the target. Prim just laughed, she hadn’t expected this was going to be her thing.

Katniss took it seriously; she loved a challenge.

Peeta’s breath hitched in his throat as he watched her tuck the sides of her skirt up into her pants to give her more freedom of movement. She planted her feet wide, showing off her toned legs and pert backside. In one smooth movement she raised the bow, pulling the arrow back to meet her full mouth, licking her lips in concentration. Peeta groaned, his head dropping as he endeavoured to stop the less than pure thoughts she aroused in him. He’d had a crush on Katniss Everdeen, the apothecary’s daughter, for what seemed like forever. His childhood fixation had never quite been left behind, despite knowing that someone like him, a boy from the seam, could never have a hope of any sort of real relationship with a merchant’s daughter.

Just as she was releasing the arrow, Katniss caught the movement in the grass at the edge of her vision, causing her to veer away from the target. The arrow flew straight and fast, missing the board as it sailed on towards the trees. There was a soft thud followed by a moments hushed disbelief before Prim started to cry. By some fluke, Katniss had managed to miss the artificial target, but had killed a squirrel that had snuck over into the meadow to forage. The arrow lodged straight through its eye.

“Oh, the poor thing,” sobbed Prim, rushing over to the small furry creature.  
“Don’t touch it Prim,” warned Madge, “It might be diseased.”

Katniss went over and gently picked up her victim. “Well, looks like squirrel steaks are on the menu for someone tonight,” she shrugged.  
“How can you joke about it, the poor creature,” Prim protested.

“It’s not like you don’t eat meat, Prim. It’s more honest to go out and catch your dinner yourself, than have it presented all nicely cooked and flavoured. This is where it comes from.” Katniss held out the squirrel for Prim to get a good look at the reality of being a carnivore.

“Well, I can’t eat him, I was just watching him nibbling on an acorn before you spoiled his day with an arrow through the eye.”

Katniss offered the squirrel to Madge. “No thanks, I don’t think it would go down well if I brought that home from my deportment lesson.”

She looked across the meadow, and started towards Peeta’s hollow.  
“What about you?”

He screwed up his face at the realisation he had been discovered. This was going to be awkward.

“I know there’s somebody there, you put me off my aim, so I think you have a claim on the kill.”

Peeta stood up slowly, raising his hands in surrender to Katniss as she stalked towards him.

“Oh,” she faltered, “Peeta, it’s you…”

He was surprised she could remember his name outside of their usual context.

“Sorry for messing up your shot, I was just having a quiet moment before you all arrived,” he lowered his tone conspiratorially, making her lean a little closer to hear, “it’s one of my hiding places.”

Katniss felt a delicious shiver go through her as his breath met her skin, and backed away from the shockingly pleasant sensation. “Sorry if we were disturbing your peace. There’s not many places you can get away from the demands of life in District 12 are there?”

They shared a smile at that. Town or seam, district 12 didn’t give any one much time to themselves.

“Would you like this squirrel. Good meat, shame to let it go to waste.”

It seemed too much to take from her, but he’d heard the discussion between the friends, and it would be nonsense to turn down the offer of a meal.

“Thank you,” he took the squirrel gratefully, “This might even save me from the wrath of my mother, if I come home bearing food.”

“You should definitely have it then.” Peeta’s mother’s temper was legendary even amongst the merchant families. It was only as Katniss turned back to her friends and went to rub her hands on her skirt, that she realised just how much of her legs she had exposed by tucking it into her pants. She quickly straightened out her dress as she walked away from Peeta, hoping he had been too distracted by the squirrel to have noticed.

Peeta couldn’t stop the grin that stretched across his face as he made his way home to the seam. He committed to memory the vision of Katniss, silhouetted by the long rays of the evening sun as she walked away from him; that would be something to help get through the dark days in the mine next week.

He allowed himself to enjoy this moment, the sky was turning from blue to his favourite sunset orange as the sun went down. The miners were returning from the pit, the voices of the men singing as they came home carried in the clear air; another day survived, another reason to be thankful.

He remembered his father singing, he’d had a rich, deep baritone that thrummed out of his chest. In Peeta’s memory, he had always been singing, as he washed the coal dust out of his skin as best he could, as he tended the small patch of ground they had by their front door, trying to grow something edible out of the barren soil. The house had lost its music since he was killed in the pit explosion.

The house was now filled by the silent anger that surrounded his mother. Youngest of the tailor’s three daughters, it had been a major scandal when she fell pregnant to a miner. She had been hastily married out of the town and into the life of the seam. It was a much harder life than she’d imagined and with her husband gone, there was little left now that could bring her any joy.

He lingered by the door, wondering whether it would be better or worse if he waited to come in with his brothers. Probably best to just get it over with, he took a deep breath and went in to find his mother waiting with her arms folded across her chest.

“Good Evening,” he greeted her cheerily.

“The sooner you’re put to use down the mine the better,” she replied bitterly, smothering his bright spirits. “Don’t think I don’t know where you’ve been. Day dreaming in the meadow again; probably over on the other side of the fence too, risking our family’s good name. It’s about time you realised there’s more than yourself to think about if the Peacekeeper’s catch you.”

He wasn’t going to let her spoil today though, raising his voice so he would be heard above her rant, he held out the squirrel. “I caught this today at the edge of the woods. I thought I could make a stew.”

“Oh…” for once his mother was lost for what to say but her stomach rumbled loudly in response. It had been a few days since they’d had any meat and a long time since anything but wild dog had been on the menu.

Peeta poured a glass of water for his mother and sat her at the table whilst he set about preparing the meal. Skinning the squirrel, he found the arrowhead still lodged in the creature’s eye. He rinsed it off, and wrapped it in a clean cloth, for safe keeping in his pocket. Using some herbs and vegetables he had managed to grow in his father’s garden, Peeta turned the squirrel into the best meal the family could remember. With stomach’s for once satisfied, a rare moment of peace settled on the Mellark house.

x-x-x-x-x

The next day was Friday, two days to go until the reaping. With his name on 42 of the slips of paper in the reaping bowl, Peeta was far from complacent but he knew by now there was no point worrying over something he had no control over, so he planned to spend the day doing the things he loved best. One way or another, on Monday he’d have less freedom, so he’d try to store up all the good memories he could before those parts of his life were taken away from him.

He got up early, and ducked under the boundary fence, heading into the woods to spend the day gathering plants for Mrs Everdeen. The medicines officially sold in the apothecary all came from the Capitol and had to be sold at Capitol prices. But one night, many years before, when his father was still alive, his brother had a fever that just wouldn’t come down. All they had to treat him with was damp cloths. Ice was even a luxury they couldn’t afford. His father had begged his mother, and at last she swallowed her pride and slunk back to the town to ask for help. Mrs Everdeen had come and, after carefully examining his brother, described the plants she needed Peeta to go out and find. These were made into a tea, and soon the fever was under control. After that he had often seen her, sometimes joined by Katniss or Prim, visiting the miners’ houses in the evenings. He had stopped by the apothecary one day when he’d found a large patch of the plants that reduced fever and a regular exchange had been set up whereby she would describe the plants she needed and Peeta would bring them for her. He always received something for his trouble; some ointment or maybe one of Prim’s goat cheeses. But the best reward for Peeta was being able to speak to Katniss when she was manning the shop. Their conversations were always strictly business but if their hands brushed together as they made their exchange it felt like electricity.

It turned out to be an excellent day for plant collecting, and Peeta whistled to himself as he made his way to the main square of District 12, where the apothecary store stood in a prime spot, directly across from the Justice Building. The bell rang as he went in. Prim was serving an older lady, clearly one of the town folk, he could tell by her dark hair and olive-toned skin, but primarily by the fact she had reached an age few from the seam would ever see.

Peeta always waited until the shop was empty before making a trade. What the Everdeen’s did to help the people of the seam wasn’t illegal, but it might be frowned upon as taking away from Capitol trade. The bell rang again as someone came in behind him. This could be a long wait. Having finished with her customer, Prim weighed up what to do and decided to take matters into her own hands.

“Peeta, would you like to go through to the back?” she indicated a door Peeta had never been invited through before. “My sister will look at your problem in private, whilst I see to Mr Cartwright.”

He couldn’t believe his luck, a private consultation with Katniss Everdeen!

Just for the hell of it, he decided to put on a dramatic limp to support Prim’s story. Winking at her as he passed, she barely managed to stifle her giggle before turning to Mr Cartwright.

The door led straight into what looked like a kitchen, but it was heavy with the scent of various herbs and flowers hung to dry in bunches from the ceiling. Katniss was startled by his entrance and looked up from her work, grinding a mixture of herbs.

Peeta limped heavily into the room, dragging his foot along the ground. She crossed quickly over to give him her shoulder to lean on, wrapping her arm gently around his waist to give him more support.

“Peeta, what’s happened?” She guided him into a chair, her eyes hovering between his face and his leg.

“Are you in pain? Can I take a look at it for you?” her cheeks reddened attractively as she offered.

“Well..” he couldn’t resist it, today was a day with nothing to lose, “if you’re sure you don’t mind?”

He unfastened his belt and lowered his trousers as Katniss watched biting her lip, her face growing a darker red by the second.

She knelt before him, her hands hovering over his leg. “So, what happened?”

She looked up at him with so much concern in her beautiful grey eyes that he couldn’t carry this on any more.

“It started just now in the shop, when Prim said I should come back here for a private consultation.”

Katniss’ brow furrowed in confusion.

He couldn’t help but laugh, “I was just putting it on for Mr Cartwight’s benefit.”

“Peeta!”

Katniss stood up immediately, her embarrassment quickly turning to fury.

“So you’re making fun of me?”

“No, no… but… it was kind of funny.”

Avoiding his face, her eyes wandered down to his naked thighs, and his well filled undershorts.

“Oh” she forced herself to look away. “Ok,” she faltered, “but the joke’s over now so I think you better make yourself decent again.”

Peeta couldn’t help but think how pretty the notoriously cool Katniss was when she was flustered, and loved that he had been able to make her feel that way.

He pulled his pants up again and buckled his belt, noticing that Katniss kept her back to him all the while. It was funny really, she must have seen plenty of naked bodies working with her mother, surely his legs couldn’t be such a shock to her.

Once he was properly dressed again, Katniss joined him at the table. Still bristling, she batted him on the arm with a scowl. “I was really worried about you,” she scolded.

Peeta wasn’t used to anyone caring much about what happened to him, as long as he stayed healthy enough to start working in the mines next week. “Sorry,” he spoke to the floor, “I didn’t mean to trouble you.”

There was an awkward silence between them now, and Peeta cursed himself for spoiling his chance to have more than a four-sentence conversation with Katniss.  
He returned to business as usual, opening his gathering bag, which was filled to the brim with plants.

“I hope your mother can use all this, it seems to have been a good year for harvesting, just the right amount of rainfall and sunshine I guess,” he rambled.

“Wow,” Katniss exclaimed, “that is quite a haul.”

“And with an injured leg and all,” she added, smiling shyly and hoping he understood she meant there was no hard feeling over his joke.

Her smile instantly lifted his mood again, and he started to tell Katniss about the day he’d had out in the woods hunting down the plants that could be used for healing. “If only I could do something like that for a living, it really would be the best job in the world.” He stopped with a gulp, realising it wasn’t the done thing to speak out loud about wanting anything other than the Capitol’s plan.

But Katniss didn’t seem to have noticed anything amiss in what he said. She had rested her cheek on her hand, gazing wistfully as she listened to the description of what was out there beyond the fence. “I’d love to see that lake,” she sighed.

Only one more day lay between Peeta and the reaping, two more until his life as a miner began in earnest and then there would be no time for this. It was now or never.

“I could take you with me tomorrow, if you like?”

She gazed back at Peeta, taking in his audacious offer. She longed to see the world Peeta had painted so vividly with his words, but…

“Isn’t it dangerous out there?” she asked trying to weigh up if she really had the nerve to go through with this.

“You could bring your bow and arrow,” Peeta joked with her. “It’s really not as bad as they say, especially in the day time. If you make a lot of noise it frightens the animals away, they’re just as afraid of us as we are of them.”

The tone of his voice seemed to put her mind at ease; and she really didn’t have any reason not to trust him.

“O.k., I’ll do it, I’ll come with you tomorrow.”

x-x-x-x-x

Peeta hardly slept that night, his body too alive with a mixture of nerves and excitement. He could hardly believe that after so many years of admiring her from a distance, he was now going to have a whole day to spend with Katniss. Who would have thought he could be so lucky?

His face lit up as she came to meet him in the meadow, just as the sun rose above the tree tops. He had seriously doubted whether she would arrive, but she hadn’t even kept him waiting. She was dressed in a smart pair of figure hugging tan trousers and a shiny pair of green leather boots.

“Nice boots” he commented to break the ice.

She smiled and posed her feet. “Thanks, I never had a good reason to wear them before.”

“Well today’s the day!” He kept to himself the thought that her feet were going to have serious blisters.

As he crashed through the undergrowth, sounding like ten men, Katniss understood why the wild cats and dogs stayed away. He looked back over his shoulder at her, picking her way, carefully watching where she placed her feet. With a broad grin he reached out his hand for her to take, wrapping his fingers tightly around hers he gave a light tug, “It’s ok, I’ve got you, I won’t let anything bad happen.”

She raised her eyebrows, “That’s a big promise to make.”

“I’ve got my own personal healer with me today, between us we should be ok.”

They walked on, Peeta showing Katniss the places where he found certain plants and which ones were good to eat.

After about an hour Katniss had gone suspiciously quiet. Another half an hour and she asked how far it was to the lake.

“Just a few more miles,” he reassured. He had noticed she was limping a little but was waiting to see if she was going to mention the boots.

“There’s a good place to rest just here.” He decided he’d have to help her out.

“How’re the new boots?”

She scowled as she sat down on a fallen tree trunk. “They’re killing me, but I really don’t want to stop.” Katniss hated to be seen as weak in any way.

She undid her boots and moaned with relief, “Oh that’s good.”

Peeta blushed at the sound of her, the kind of sound she made in his dreams.

“Maybe you could try …”

He went off into the trees and returned with some leaves.

“Cover the blisters with this before you put your socks back on, it’s soothing.”

He started unlacing his own boots, well softened from years of use.

Katniss watched as he removed his socks and passed them to her.

“Put them on, over yours, it will help.”

“Thanks,” she reluctantly accepted his offer, knowing she wasn’t going to make it far if she didn’t let him help her.

They pushed on, until eventually Katniss noticed the ground seemed to be sloping downwards, and then she caught a glimpse of the light shining on the water through the trees.

“The lake!” she couldn’t contain her excitement.

He nodded watching her face light up at the sight.

The water seemed to draw them in, until they stood side by side at the edge where small waves lapped at the muddy banks.

Katniss bent down to dip her hands in, letting the water pour through her fingers. “It smells fresher than the water from our taps. Is it safe to drink?”

Peeta nodded again, enjoying her reactions to this place he loved so well.

Katniss and Peeta drank and splashed their faces, which ended up in throwing water over each other.

“How deep does it get?” Katniss asked, clearly tempted to get further immersed.

“More than deep enough to drown in in the middle,” he warned before she got too carried away, “but if you stay close to the edge you could paddle those sore toes a little.”

They sat and took their boots off together, lining them up side by side. There was something about how that looked that made Peeta feel a strange warmth inside.

Katniss rolled up her trouser legs and dipped her feet in. She held her hand out for Peeta and they waded out up to their knees, gazing out across the water to the unending forest of trees beyond.

“Just imagine living out here” Katniss sighed, “It could work you know, there’s plenty to eat and drink, plants to treat your ailments, shelter amongst the trees.”

“I’ve thought about that plenty of times,” Peeta confessed, “I could just go out collecting one day and never come back.”

Katniss wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that though, “That sounds too sad. Could you really do that, leave your family behind?”

“Maybe… I don’t know as they’d miss me that much; but you’re right, it wouldn’t be fair. Can you imagine how fuming my mother would be if I went and got myself lost in the woods and never made it back for her to kill me herself!”

Katniss laughed and splashed some more water up at him.

It was the most perfect day of Peeta’s life, one he never wanted to end. The more he got to really know Katniss the more he felt his heart would never be his own again. But the sun was lowering in the sky and they still had a long walk home.

Katniss was leaning against him, weaving together some reeds to take home as proof for Prim she had really seen a lake. He gave her a gentle nudge, “Better get back before the peacekeepers come. They usually put the fence back on for reaping day.”

Katniss had felt so warm and contented, she had forgotten about the reaping.

She banged her fist into the ground. “I hate what they do to us. I wish there was some way we could change things.”

“I know,” Peeta sighed. There were an awful lot of things he wished he could change; that today wasn’t just the one off it had to be, that they could do this again, that they could be friends, that one day he could put his arms around her and ask her to be his girl. But none of that was the reality of the world they lived in, and if there was one thing his mother had taught him it was that nothing good ever came of his dreaming.

Katniss groaned as she put her boots back on. “Sorry feet, that’s the end of your freedom.”

She put out her hands for Peeta to pull her up and they found themselves suddenly close, face to face still holding hands.

“Thank you for today,” she murmured, unable to take her gaze from his kind blue eyes.

“Any time Katniss,” he smiled back, suddenly shy. “I really enjoyed spending time with you.”

He wanted so much to lean in and kiss her, but couldn’t bear the thought of spoiling the moment, so he gave her hands a quick squeeze and let go.

The mood was quieter on the way home even if Peeta’s feet weren’t. Eventually Peeta asked if Katniss knew any good songs to break the silence. To his surprise she sang the miners’ song, the one they sang as they came back from the pit every evening. In her voice it sounded sweeter, with a whole new message of hope, not just relief to have survived another day. She wouldn’t accept his praise though and so he started a game with them making up new words to the tunes of the old songs, just so he could keep hearing her voice.

They ran out of songs as the light dimmed and they neared the fence. The realities of life in District 12 creeping in between them as they approached. They had been holding hands, but let go to duck back under the fence. And there they were, back in the meadow, just like they had been two days ago, a merchant girl and a boy from the seam, not quite sure how to act around each other.

“Thanks again Peeta.”

“You’re welcome again Katniss.”

“I’ll maybe see you at the reaping.”

“I’ll keep my eye out for you.”

“Good Luck...”

“And you.”

She reached up to press a kiss against his cheek and before he could take in the shock she had turned and started to run towards the town.

When he couldn’t see her anymore, Peeta turned in the opposite direction, towards the seam, his heart ready to burst out of his chest.


End file.
